//------------------------------// // Grudge Match // Story: House that Heartbreak Rebuilt // by Jet_Black1980 //------------------------------// Chapter Five Grudge Match The two of them blink and look at me with very confused looks on their faces. I can’t blame them. What are cutie marks but patches of coloured fur on a pony’s rump, right? Then again, from what I have seen out of the show, they could be more. “Huh?” Twilight asks. “When Cream Puff touched it-” I glare at my right side, the side that she was touching. “-it started to burn. And I don’t mean like if something touches an old burn or the like. I mean more like that red hot brand was being shoved into my skin again,” I explain, giving a visual with my hooves. “And her touching your mark caused her to cry? How does that work?” Twilight asks. Damn it! Why doesn’t she get this? She’s Twilight Sparkle! She deals with strange magical things all the time! “I don’t know! But that’s what happened!” I reply, glaring at my flank. Twilight gives me a questioning and bemused look. “H.B., I have a hard time believing that. After all, touching another ponies cutie mark doesn’t normally do anything.” I do not like being talked down to like this. It’s my ass and my fucking mark. “Twilight! Are you forgetting that I am -not- a normal pony? And these-” I point to the broken hearts placed on my ass. “These. Aren’t. ‘Normal' cutie marks, Fet! These aren’t even real fetting cutie marks! They’re fetting brandings!” “Still, touching it shouldn’t-” Twilight begins. I glare at her. She’s not listening to me. I hate when others don’t listen to me or can’t hear me. I frown and I feel my leg twitch slightly. “Fine!” I shout turning my flank to Twilight. “Touch it!” Twilight gives me a weirded-out look. “What?” “You heard me! Touch it, Twilight! If it isn’t anything special, why not go ahead and touch it! It’s not like I am going to ever offer my flank to be touched by you again!” I glare at her. “I dare you.” ...Wow. Just... wow. Only now after I have said it does that sound really perverted. Twilight looks at my flank and reaches cautiously forward as if she is about to stick her hoof into a fire. She gasps suddenly and then pulls it back. “I-I’m not going to touch your flank, H.B. After all, I know it means something totally different in your culture.” I turn away from her. There is a bit of satisfaction in knowing that: (A) She knows that touching my butt has different connotations where I’m from. And (B) That she looked a little frightened when her hoof was going up to touch me. Like my worries are justified in all this. “See? Even you’re afraid to touch it.” Just then out of the corner of my eye, I see Twilight’s face glare at my expression and then her hoof reaching forward to my mark. “Well if you’re going to be that way about it.” On reaction I clutch my tail and use it as a shield of sorts, after all, the fresh memory of the burning pain still quite clear in my mind. “Twilight!” I shout. She looks at me confused. “What?!” ============================================================== Heartbreak glared at Twilight. “What part of, ‘Don’t touch it,’ and, ‘It’s evil!’ aren’t you getting?!” “But you said-” Twilight began. “I said that because I wanted to see your reaction! I didn’t think that you would actually follow through with touching my flank!” Heartbreak replied. “You wanted to see my reaction?” Twilight asked frowning. “Why?!” “I told you, this thing is just...evil!” She sighed looking at the ground. “It’s hard to explain, but...” Heartbreak rolled her eyes. “I swear the thing sometimes... changes. I swear it looks different than when it was first,” she paused again, her face twitching. “Given to me.” Twilight looked at the mark. “I’ve never... noticed that before.” She bent her head down to look at it. “It does look slightly different. Maybe I should scan it-” she began, her horn glowing. Heartbreak almost instantly jumped back. “What?! No! I don’t want your horn or your magic near it!” “H.B.! I’m just trying to help you,” Twilight replied, a spike of surprise rippling through her voice. “And I said no!” Heartbreak insisted. “Didn’t you once say that you didn’t recognize the magic that brought me here?” “Yes, but what does that have to do with your cutie-” Twilight paused on her words. “What does that have to do with your mark?” Heartbreak held her tail against her mark the best she could and looked at the ground. “It was Fae magic that brought me here, Twilight. And Fae magic that put this thing on my flanks. And I might not understand much about magic as a whole, but I know two things.” She looked at Twilight warily. “One: there is no magic that you know of that can give a p-p-pony a cutie mark. And two: I am pretty sure that mixing strange magic that you know nothing about with your own magic is a bad idea!” Twilight stared blankly. “Alright, those things are true. However, the only way I can learn anything about this is by interacting with it. If I could just-” She started to say as she lowered her horn. Heartbreak’s eyes widened in a terrified expression “I. Said. No!” Rarity walked up to Twilight and made a motioning gesture at Heartbreak. “This is what I was talking about, Twilight. We try to offer her help at every turn and she only refuses like a stubborn little filly!” Heartbreak looked at Twilight. “I just don’t want anything bad to happen.” Rarity frowned. “And refusing anypony’s help, particularly a pony whose special talent happens to be magic, just because you’re afraid, will stop bad things from happening?” Heartbreak stomped her hoof down. “I would rather nothing happen then something terrible happening like what just happened out there!” “Something that you haven’t quite explained just yet!” Rarity retorted. “Like Twilight, I am not quite sure I buy into your whole story of, ‘My cutie mark makes ponies cry.’” Twilight frowned. “Rari-” she began. “It’s not an excuse! I know what I felt! And it felt horrible and wrong!” Heartbreak replied seething. Twilight tried to get a word in edgewise. “H.-” “That just sounds like an excuse to avoid simple activities like being social and talking to other ponies!” Rarity countered. “And if you felt horrible and wrong about somepony touching that mark of yours, then you should let Twilight look at it!” Twilight turned to her friend. “Rar-” “Simple!? Excuse me, but reading and entertaining a group of little ponies is far from simple and a job that I am not qualified for!” Heartbreak replied harshly. “And I told you no! Look! I’m no specialist in Fae magic. Fet, I didn’t think that there could be a specialist in Fae magic, but everything I have read in the mythology department? You don’t go bungling the Fae bangles! And Twilight doesn’t know anything about this thing either!” Twilight raised her hoof and opened her mouth. This time however, she wasn’t able to even get a sound out. “So. Let me see if I am understanding this properly. By taking the route that you view as safest: The one that you only take out of fear, you think you are going to do as our Princess has commanded and get back into harmony?!” Rarity asked moving closer to Heartbreak. “Hey, it works for Fluttershy! Besides, the Princess said that she wanted me to write her letters about the profound things I have learned about myself and what lessons that I learned about the Elements of Harmony! She said nothing about ponies looking at my rump!” Rarity humphed. “I might be a lady and a dressmaker, but even I know that if you are constantly living in fear and unwilling to take chances that you won’t get anywhere! A fashionista has to be willing to take chances!” She turned and glared at Heartbreak. “It seems to me that the rumors that I have been hearing about you are indeed true!” Twilight started to groan. Could this argument get any more pointless?! “You are indeed nothing but a stubborn, hardheaded, whiny little filly!” Heartbreak’s jaw dropped slightly and she glared seethingly. “Oh! You didn’t just call me whiny!” “Yes I did, and I will do it again!” Rarity moved close to Heartbreak’s face. “You’re whiny.” Heartbreak’s eyes narrowed at Rarity. “Whiny? You’re calling me whiny?” “Do I need to repeat myself yet again?” Rarity asked. “Oh no... But that isn’t whining...” Heartbreak began as her voice took a sudden upturn in pitch and she threw her hooves down. “Thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiis is whining! Twiiilight! Rarity’s being mean to me! Why does she have to be sooooo mean!?” Twilight looked around wide eyed, her ears drooping. “Uh-oh...” Rarity looked confused for a moment, and then her eye twitched. “Stop that.” “The poooonies are talking about me and saying mean things!” Heartbreak continued, touching her face in an over dramatic manner. “Walking on hoooves is haaaaard! Why do I have to eat hay!?” Rarity bristled. “Stop that!” “But I’m just a stubborn little filly!” Heartbreak replied in a whiny voice as she crossed her forelegs. “And I am just emulating one of my teachers!” Rarity’s eyes narrowed. “Oh, you! You think you can out do me at my own game!?” She flipped her mane. “Is that what you think? Well maybe I should emulate you!” Heartbreak rolled her eyes. “You don’t know me well enough.” Rarity rolled her eyes. “Oh, what’s to know?!” She proceeded to put on her saddest face. “I’m Heartbreak and I’m a sad, sad pony that isn’t really a pony!” Heartbreak grimaced. “Oh, we’re playing that game, eh?” she coughed and put on the most fake accent she could muster. “I’m Rarity! I’m always fashionable and giving, except when I am not!” Rarity mussed up her mane slightly and then looked at Heartbreak. “Oh Woe is me! I have all the time in the world but I don’t do anything to clean up my appearance! I could brush my mane or get it done up, but I’d rather not because that would mean dealing with other pooooooonies!” Heartbreak narrowed her eyes. “While I can’t staaand being alone and need constant approval of other ponies on my appearance! I have to be oh-so-stunning all the time, daaaaaaaaaaaaaarling! Oh! What’s that?! I chipped a hoof! I feel a pimple coming on! Better dash off to the spa!” “I was thrown here by my bitter ends and now it’s hard for me to adapt! But that’s no surprise seeing that I live in constant fear of doing things!” Rarity flustered getting in Heartbreak’s face. “I always have time for my fffriends and those p-p-ponies who need me, except when I’m chasing after stallions old enough to be my father!” Heartbreak countered, smirking. Rarity glared back at her and took a dramatic pose looking at her hoof. “When I couldn’t adapt to not having my former appendages, I drilled a hole in my hoof and chased after the creepiest pony in all of Ponyville!” Heartbreak frowned and broke her whining. “I was under the influence of magic tea that Twilight gave me! You might have known that if you had been talking to either Twilight or myself instead of the Ponyville gossip mill!” “I’ve been BUSY! I have had a lot of dresses to make, thank you very much!” Rarity exclaimed pressing her face up to Heartbreak's. “Some of us work for a living!” “Well I didn’t know that! Because you didn’t tell me!” Heartbreak ranted as she pressed her face back. “And I have been doing all the jobs that Twilight has given me!” “Well, it’s no wonder when you’re living in your own little world all the time!” Rarity nearly shouted. “Like you’re one to talk-” Heartbreak started. “THAT'S. E-NOUGH!” Twilight shouted, while pushing them both apart. Rarity and Heartbreak turned away from each other. “She started it!” They said in unison. “I don’t care who started it! The both of you are acting like bratty little fillies now and it’s getting us nowhere! If you keep acting like little fillies, then I am going to treat you like little fillies and make you hold hooves in a corner!” Twilight said gritting her teeth and pointing at a corner of the room. Suddenly a flash of something flickered across her face. “In fact...” Heartbreak’s face drooped. “Uh-oh...” Rarity looked at Heartbreak confused. “Uh-oh? ‘Uh-oh,’ what?” “I-I know that look on Twilight’s face,” Heartbreak replied worriedly. “You do?” Rarity asked. “N-now Twilight,” Heartbreak said starting to back pedal. “I know that Rarity and I have our issues! But that doesn’t mean that you have to do anything rash! We can work out our differences, right Rar-Rar?” Rarity blinked and shook her head. After all, this pony had been arguing with her only moments ago. “Oh good! You’ve figured out what I have decided to do then!” Twilight replied brandishing a large smile. “Oh... fet... locks...” Heartbreak muttered quietly to herself. “You have?” Rarity asked. “As Headteacher, I am making an executive decision.” She took a deep breath. “Rarity, you are going to be H.B.’s teacher for this month.” Twilight put a hoof on Rarity’s shoulder. “Congratulations.”